ML20125D915
| ML20125D915 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Three Mile Island  |
| Issue date: | 03/30/1979 |
| From: | YORK, PA |
| To: | |
| References | |
| TASK-TF, TASK-TMR NUDOCS 8001170773 | |
| Download: ML20125D915 (3) | |
Text
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a w YORK CamTY WC ( F EVENTS PFRTAINING % T. H. I.
0727 hours0.00841 days <br />0.202 hours <br />0.0012 weeks <br />2.766235e-4 months <br /> Wednesday, March 28, 1979 received a teletype message from Hackman, Chief Lizpatcher, Lancaster County Emergency Center. Teletype stated " informatim received 0720 hours0.00833 days <br />0.2 hours <br />0.00119 weeks <br />2.7396e-4 months <br /> this date from Mr. Doller, PEMA., duty of ficer stating that Three Mile Island reported m site emergency reactor room reports high level of radiation. Reactor No 2 has been shut down. No off site release; Acknowledge this mersage.
0805 hours0.00932 days <br />0.224 hours <br />0.00133 weeks <br />3.063025e-4 months <br /> received a telephone call f rom Mr. tothrup, PEPA., asked if word was received f rom D. E. R., could we put out the word and get an evacuatian of the 5 mile area of T. M. I., underway. Inf ormed Mr. Iothrup w would begin irnediately to prepare.
Placed radio station W. S. D. A., on standby for Ernergency Broadcast. Dispatchers called key county emergency people to ccee to the E. O. C. Alerted county officials and local officials.
0035 hours4.050926e-4 days <br />0.00972 hours <br />5.787037e-5 weeks <br />1.33175e-5 months <br /> a telephone call was received from Ms. Iamison PEMA. , informing uA i.hnt they h e isolated the problem at T. M. I., and contained it within the steam generater and they were working on the problem at the present time. However all emergency people should rerain on standby until given the final clearance word fa ce the a,thorities at the central office cf FEPA., or D. E. R.
0925 hours0.0107 days <br />0.257 hours <br />0.00153 weeks <br />3.519625e-4 months <br /> received a call f rom Mr. Lamir.on IRA stating thit the problem at 7.M.I., is now contained and we could release our standby emergency peopic.
Prom that point we in the York County Emergency Center were in 11mho. The local evenirg paper for that date carried the headline "A l'lANT PROBLEM NOW WDE9 CONTPOt; We had to rely on the news media to know something unusual was taking place at T. M. I. Very little exact information came to us the remainder of March 28th and 29th.
C900 hours Friday, March 30th., all 911 phones and other phones in the Emargency Center beg 3 ringing at one time. People in the Goldsboro were all c alling for informatien and other local officials in that crea were calling. Lt. 14ws k i, State Police called for help in the area. It spreated that some radio station (unknown to us) was broadcasting that extremely high levels of ru. tion was leaking from the plant. Paul leese, lancaster County Emergency hanagement Di rector .;alled to report that a helicopter had obtained 1200 millirems reading a 600 feet above the plant. That he had panic and cahetic conditions on his side cf the river as we had in the Goldsboro area. It was decided that in order to help the emergency people on the scene we would put the phase 1 of our counties evacuation plan in operatlen. This rnerely asks the people to remain indoors with doors and windows closed, listen to their radi, or scanners and obey instructions. Due to the fact that both lencaster County and York Coun' broadcast such messages on the same frequency it was decided the York County Emergency Centei would broadcast at 0920 hcurs followd by Lancaster County at 0925 hours0.0107 days <br />0.257 hours <br />0.00153 weeks <br />3.519625e-4 months <br />. Promptly at 0920 w? hit all C. D. sirens and began broadcatting to all emergency people at the scene. They j w diately used all equipment available with loud speakerr telling the perpin to go inside and remain inside. The plan worked perf ectly in both York and Lancaster unties.
0922 hours0.0107 days <br />0.256 hours <br />0.00152 weeks <br />3.50821e-4 months <br /> %1ef 31 and Chief 28 gave us a 104 meaning they wre in operatien.
0926 hours0.0107 days <br />0.257 hours <br />0.00153 weeks <br />3.52343e-4 months <br /> all monitoring fire stations thrcughout York County were asked to tM e readir gs er r eport same to us.
2002 hours0.0232 days <br />0.556 hours <br />0.00331 weeks <br />7.61761e-4 months <br /> Chief 28 reported that the situation is 108 and situ tim under cmtrol.
1024 hours0.0119 days <br />0.284 hours <br />0.00169 weeks <br />3.89632e-4 months <br /> a broadcast was made over out county school system radio asking that all *.chools in the area keep their children indoors.
1C54 hours we re broadcasted the Governors re?uest that all persons within the 10 rrile enne remain indoors until the situation cleared.
1200 hours0.0139 days <br />0.333 hours <br />0.00198 weeks <br />4.566e-4 months <br /> a broadcast was made on the strength of a teletype message from PEMA that the ban on people staying indoors was lif ted at 1200 hours0.0139 days <br />0.333 hours <br />0.00198 weeks <br />4.566e-4 months <br />. Also broadcast to all emergency ur)1ts wa j;he Governors advise that all pre school children and pregnant woman leave the 5 rnile area As soon as this broadcast was completed we made the necessary arran ements Hi gh School as an evacuation point 80 117 M Cantra ofnar It was at this point that the York County Emergency Center went on complete emargency duty.
^11 key county of ficials were notified along with all key officinin of the York County CD technical staff. "11 were directed to report to the E. O. C., for their emergency work.
Local officials were also notified to prepara for emargencies in their area. This was also the beginning of reams of teletypes and phone messaaes from the PEMA., Central Office.
I It was at this time we learned that preparation must be nade for a 20 mile evacuatien and l due to the rapid events which took place we could no longer time perind the events.
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s The telephone company was called and fif teen extra phones were installed in the E. O. C.,
8 of these phones to be used for rumor control.
The radio dispatchers were placed on 16 hour1.851852e-4 days <br />0.00444 hours <br />2.645503e-5 weeks <br />6.088e-6 months <br /> shif ts - 8 on their radios and B on the rumcr control phones. There being a small kitchen in the E. O. C., a 10 day supply of fresh food was immediately ordered and delivered.
The York County Commissioners cleared all other employees from the basement cf,the courthot and gave the entire working area to the evacuation planners and workers as they arrived at the E. O. C.
June Snyder, Director of Public Health Nurses for York County arrived with her entire staff This troup along with doctors from the three York County Hospitals and Dr. White of the ste of Veryland wsre given a working area and telephones. Their job being to plan evacuation f the York Hospital, Vemorial hospital and numerous nursing homes withir. the affected area.
Theirs was a tremendous job but they did yoeman work and finally came up with an excellent plan of action.
As the State Police, Lt. Irwski and Cpl. Buck along with the National Guerd arrived at the E. O. C., they t.cre assigned a work area with deskg, telepnones and maps. Th eir job being to plan routes of travel to be used in evacuation, how many people would be statiened at each interchange and intersection to keep an even flow of traffic. The job of security af ter the residents and the support f or their own f orces who would be brought into York County.
As the federal and state evacuation planners arrived at the E. O. C., they were given York County maps and working space with all necessary needed equipment.
As the York County Planning group arrived they were given work areas and telephones. Their
'ob being to ascertain the numbar of residents and vehicles in the area to be evecuated.
f'oke a telephone survey in an attempt to ascertain how many residents had fled the area and how many remained to be evacuated. To ascertain the number of vehic&es that could pass hourly over the evacuation routes with an even flow of traffic. Also to outline and place on maps all necessary information for the evacuation planners.
The transpcrtation people under the direction of Mr. Warner. Red Lion Bus Company arrived and were given their assigned work area. Their job being to ascertain the number of all types of vehicles in York County that could be pressed into use for evacuation purposes also to work with the Health people and determine how many units of transportation would be necessary for the' hospitals and nursing ho es.
When the American Red Cross and Eepartmental of Environmental Resources arrived they were given work areas to perform their duties. As they received word of evacuation sites they visited the sites and ascertained the number of people each site could take care of in mass care. It was also their job to coni.act food, medical, and other suppliers and place on standby the nacessary food and materials that would be needed.
Firo Department officials arrived and were given their work area. I t was their job to cme up with a plan of fire equipment movemant that would cover York County completely during and after an evacuation.
I have touched only the major working groups. There were many smaller groups doing a great job of getting the correct answers for quec tions the major groups wanted. There were times when apprcximately 100 people were working in the E. O. C., arva. As each group completed a phase of their plan on yellow pads it was discussed with me and Glen Beddie the Chief Plar.ner. Upon being approved it was taken upstairs to typists standing by and placed in type written form.
Af ter approximately 32 hours3.703704e-4 days <br />0.00889 hours <br />5.291005e-5 weeks <br />1.2176e-5 months <br /> of steady work we knew by early saturday evening that we now had a good plan and it should be given to the populace of York County. The plan was discussed with the County Commissioners who agreed with it. It was decided to hold a mass meeting of local elected officials in the Courthouse at 10:00 A.M., m Sunday. The plan would be explained to them and they would be given typed sheets of the plan to take back to their people and explain to them what would take place. This meeting was held and was well attended. Some of the municipalities went back and printed up their flyers which they passed out to all residents. The news media was briefed completely and requested to give the plan complete coverage over all media. This they agreed to do. By late Sunday everyme in York County knew what to do and where they would be evacuated to if necessary.
In the meantime the Health group had a mass meeting with all directors of nursing homes and hospitals and explained to them exactly what would take place. This turned out to te an excellent meeting as their appeared to be complete agreement between the directors of the agencies and the health group.
In the meantime we had now obtained a direct telephnne line to the Central PDiA of fice in Parrisburg and also direct radio with Harrisburg and Washington. ,
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Also I rnust commend Mr. Brown of the Maryland Civil ref ense Agency. He had errived at the E. O. C., and did a tremendous job in working with the various groups and his group in Maryland to prepare Timonium rairground6, Whiteford School District and Manchester School District to the care of any overflow of people frce southern York County if an evacuation became necessary.
By early Sunday eveing we felt we were prepared and this evacuation plan wnuld work if needed.
In the sneantime all of us who were weary f rom working the long hours telieved we w?re beginning to get clues on Smday that perhaps things were not as bad as the wire news agencies would have us believe. We knew nothern York County was not a vaste wastelend people all having fled, we knew that 50,000 aerea of York County was not centaminattd.
President Carter visited T. M. I., would he take his wife along if the island was about to blow up. We finally got thru to an aide of Governor Thornburg late Sunday nite and was inforTned that the Govemor would not close the schools 'in York County except within the 5 mile zone. He certainly knew school buses were vital for an evacuation. Then later of curse came the order to cut the planning back to a 10 mile radius.
The York County Emergency Operations was m full Emergency Operations for 10 days. Our dispatchers did a trewndous job especially on the rumor control phones as they were deluged with calls.
(These rmor control phones turned out to te cme of the most important items we had installed for t.his emergency period).
While the large groups of planners and workers lef t by Tuesday. The,se remaining continued to update and work on the plan along with working on the 10 mile plan.
As a result of this tremendous amount of work and combined efforts of all involved we drew up an excellent plan of evacuation. The State of Pennsylvania, FEMA., of fice ordered 50 copies of the York County plan be printed in advance for their use in dis tri.butim. They did pay for those 50 copies.
This is merely a brief outline of what took place during that extremely hectic, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Mnny, Many things were happening so f ast that it was impossible to record or even remember. I think the simplist way I can refer to the hectic pace is that three of our radio dispatchere who wrked hard during the entire period resigned their positions on doctors orders due to developing a nervoun condition. They paid a high price for T. M. 2.
Finally I fault no me f er T. M.1 I do say that the time period from 0925 hours0.0107 days <br />0.257 hours <br />0.00153 weeks <br />3.519625e-4 months <br /> on Wednesday, March 20th., to 0900 hours0.0104 days <br />0.25 hours <br />0.00149 weeks <br />3.4245e-4 months <br /> m Friday, March 30th., A period during wMeh we received no truthfull informatinn and were just about in limbo must never occur. We are the people who must handle and take care of the reople outside the plant. In order to prepare ourselves to do the right job we must have the truth from within the plant.
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